


The Thing With Feathers

by Thimblerig



Series: The Tenner [13]
Category: Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, Original Work
Genre: F/F, Femslash February, Femslash February 2021, Fic and Podfic, Podfic, Podfic Length: 0-10 Minutes, Sound Effects, The Tenner
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:20:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23573764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thimblerig/pseuds/Thimblerig
Summary: Day 7 - Feather
Series: The Tenner [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1680610
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6
Collections: The Tenner





	1. Chapter 1

__

_“Once upon a time, a girl was given to a monster,” Yekaterina says, sitting in the library and staring through foggy window glass at the pouring rain. “Oh, don’t look at me like that, it’s common enough. Traded for peace, or wealth, or to remove a household encumbrance, or simply that it is too much trouble to walk with her in the woods and so keep her from harm… It happens, my loves.”_

* * *

**The Thing With Feathers**

* * *

Once upon a time, a girl was given to a monster. She was very beautiful, as her people counted these things - a long oval face, and strong black brows, skin like ivory seen by firelight and the way she walked, ah! she walked like birdsong. It was said by some that envy had a part in her sacrifice but, what lamb cares whether it is thought beautiful when a knife is at its throat?

They set her on a crag on the heights of a mountain, wrapped in a cloak of her own weaving, and told her to _Stay, there’s a good girl._ And she did, for as her people counted these things “good” meant doing as you’re told. The wind cut at her like knives. The air tore at her hair. It was a relief, almost, when a thing with feathers dropped out of the sun and bore her off in sharp talons.

And then, at the monster’s lair, there was nothing. Only a tiny, comfortable manor house set on a green meadow improbably high in the crags, full of books and musical instruments and fine flax and wool to spin and weave if she wished, and brightly coloured birds to sing to, if she wanted, and at night - company. Just a strange, courtly person who claimed to serve the house, who had a voice like a bass flute and told the girl all the wonders she had seen in the world, before she became trapped in the darkness. She listened, also, did the voice, to all the secrets the girl wished to share. It was love of a sort, what they did in the dark.

Tchah! Time passes as it does to us all. In time the girl begged for a visit home, for she remembered the family that sacrificed her fondly and wished them to know that she was well. She was granted this, and returned after a week, brimming with stories of marriages and births and new fields bought and broken up with a plough.

It might be asked if envy prompted some of what happened, envy towards one who had found a gentle fate and whose back would not be broken, whose fingers would not roughen with labour unless she really, truly wanted it to. Perhaps the cousin who handed her a flint in a tinder box, who asked her gently, _Just how far can you trust someone you’ve never seen?_ truly meant to teach the girl wisdom. What does the lamb know of such things?

But it wasn’t long before the girl’s curiosity in the night burned her far worse than flame. When she thought that the voice that loved her slept, she struck sharp flint against rough steel once! twice! The sparks did not catch. A third time she tried to call fire, and lit a tiny tallow stub of a candle.

Light blossomed in the room, rich as a lily. On the bed, laid with blankets of the girl’s own weaving, lay a woman who was winged, and beautiful. She sighed in her sleep and whispered the girl’s own name. Then her eyes, her hawk-gold wild eyes opened.

They stared at each other, the girl and the hawk.

The hawk screamed, and leapt for the window, and was gone.

* * *

_Lady Yekaterina drums her fingers on the cool glass, rat-a-tat-tat._

_“She is no longer beautiful as her people count these things. When I met the woman her skin was burned dark in the sun and her hair chopped short and ragged. Her brows are the same though, dark and glossy, drawn like bird’s wings._

_“She still walks like bird-song though I don’t know for how much longer, burdened as she is with shoes of iron, for walking, and a bundle of stone bread, for eating._ _I let her sit at my hearth one night, for the story of her life, and sent her on her way with a scrap of food in her belly and wine on her lips. As to what happens, when she finds her lover…”_

_Yekaterina clicks her tongue. “I shall tell you when I know.”_


	2. Podfic

* * *

Click [here](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dPGPQ2zhyx-iG7j2dy1I1bCbTMMQqXKX/view?usp=drivesdk) to stream or download :-) 

* * *

Format: MP3  
Length: 6:06  
Size: 8.69 MB

**Author's Note:**

> // Title comes from a poem by Emily Dickinson. This is based on the ancient story "Eros and Psyche", though it's a common theme in fairy tales - "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Brown Bear of Norroway" for example.
> 
> // The audio version was recorded as part of Femslash February 2021
> 
> Programs Used: Audio Evolution; Logopit Plus; Music Editor
> 
> Cover image: https://publicdomainvectors.org/en/free-clipart/Vector-graphics-of-swirling-petals-floral-design/34665.html 
> 
> Music/FX:
> 
> “Simple piano improvisation” by ValentinSosnitskiy - https://freesound.org/people/ValentinSosnitskiy/sounds/431520/ (CC BY 3.0)  
> “pigeon wings” by tigersound -  
> https://freesound.org/people/tigersound/sounds/9329/ (CC BY-NC 3.0)  
> “01153 great wings in motion” by Robinhood76 -  
> https://freesound.org/people/Robinhood76/sounds/75526/ (CC BY-NC 3.0)  
> “ATM INT Wind Howl Cold Winter 11 (stereo).wav” by Takkyi - https://freesound.org/people/Takkyi/sounds/546869/ (CC0)  
> “Party Pack, Match, Ignite, 01-01.wav” by InspectorJ - https://freesound.org/people/InspectorJ/sounds/484266/ (CC BY 3.0)


End file.
